This is a very interesting story and much worth your time. Of course, it matters not a dime’s worth what experts, common sense, experience, and respect for human dignity may teach us, regular people have zero say in the nation’s transportation policy so not one mile of true European-style high speed rail will ever be built in the United States. The only people who have a seat at the table are the special interest groups representing commercial highway users, the auto industry and airlines. It is still a good read. You can see it all on the link below.

New high-speed rail lines are credited with sparking a real estate and housing boom, among other economic benefits, in smaller cities in China. Now experts are debating whether rail modernization can have the same effects in the U.S.
A study by researchers at the University of California-Los Angeles and China’s Tsinghua University found that by connecting “second tier” cities to global hubs, more people move to the smaller cities where housing costs are lower, creating a real-estate boom, among other unplanned benefits.

In 2007 China built new, 185-miles-per-hour bullet train lines to connect Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou to nearby cities, some of the construction coinciding with the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Based on the real estate appreciation recorded between 2006 and 2010, the researchers estimated that when “market potential,” defined as access to goods, services and labor, is boosted 10 percent by a new bullet train line, housing prices rise 4.5 percent.